Page 13 of Maverick

To be fair, in our family, it's not that unusual.

"See! Catastrophe." He drops onto the couch with a heavy sigh, then immediately stands and shrugs out of his suit jacket, tossing it across the room. Then he sits again. "What are we drinking?"

Ransom raises a brow at me. "Fine," I mutter, standing and moving to the bar cart in the corner. I pour us drinks —the rest of the guys are going to have to get their own — then hand them out.

Colton proceeds to explain to us exactly how twitchy he is, describing the length and severity of the spasms. Gradually, the rest of my brothers file in. Nick strolls in, straight to the mini fridge and grabs himself a beer.

Zach enters right after, stops halfway to the bar cart, bends, and picks up Colton's jacket, folding it carefully and laying it over the back of a chair. Then he pours himself a finger of whiskey.

Declan and Kade come in next, arguing about some MMA fight they saw. Jonas is last, entering with hair standing straight up. I wonder what he's been working on? He's got a habit of tugging on it when he's working through a problem. My brother is brilliant, scattered, and persistent as fuck, so I’m sure whatever he’s working through will get figured out.

I sit, sipping my drink, listening to the chatter. It's familiar, the sound of home and family, and it's easy to let my mind drift aimlessly as my brother's voices rise and fall.

Then my attention snaps right back to the room when I hear Ransom ask Nick "Are you going back to the shelter? When is she coming home?"

Nicks brow raises and he takes another sip. I look between him and Ransom, and yeah, I hold my breath a bit. It's loud in here, I don't want to miss anything.

"What do you mean?" Nick asks innocently.

Ransom's not buying it. "The dog? You've been spending a lot of time at the shelter. And with one dog specifically. When are you bringing her home?"

Nick screws up his face. "How the fuck do you know everything all the time?"

Ransom chuckles, but doesn't reply, relishing his man of mystery role. It's not really a surprise, though. He makes the rounds, checking on all of us, and on the women. And since the women are going to the rescue, I wouldn't be surprised if he's heard all about the dog Nick's been working with. He's been working to help her out of her shell, and he's already paid the adoption fee. The dog is his, as soon as she's ready.

"She's not ready to come home yet. She's still a little shut down, but she's starting to trust me."

"Someone hurt her?" Kade asks gruffly.

"Yeah. I don't know all the specifics, but she doesn't really trust people anymore. But I'm taking my time. I'll get her there."

"Yeah you will," Zach says firmly. That's what I love about my brothers. We're always here for each other, supporting each other. We give each other shit all the time, but when it matters, I have no doubt they'll be there.

Or in this case, for that dog.

"You going back tonight?" Zach asks. He's been to the rescue a bunch of times. He got his little dog from there, and his girlfriend Maya is the one that first introduced us to the rescue.

"Yeah. Bree's heading there, so I thought I'd meet her."

"Maverick should go with you. He can see Cadence," Jonas adds helpfully.

All eyes turn to me and I resist the urge to squirm in my seat.

Or curse out Jonas.

"What's this about Cadence? The waitress from your club?" Ransom asks, his eyes narrowing on me. "Did I miss something?"

I shoot Jonas a glare, but he's oblivious, too excited to share. "Maverick was flirting with her last night at the club. And she was flirting back. Until she found out he was her boss."

"I wasn't flirting," I mutter.

"You so were," Declan chimes in. "You couldn't take your eyes off her."

"And she couldn't take her eyes off you," Nick adds. "Until Jonas opened his big mouth."

"Hey!" Jonas protests. "I did not know it was a secret. Why would it be?"

Ransom leans forward, his elbows on his knees. "You like this girl?"

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